What is a Commercial Art Diploma Program?
Commercial art refers to art that is used for conveying information to interested parties. It requires many of the skills of other art forms, such as drawing, painting or photography, but serves a commercial or specific communicative purpose. A diploma in commercial art can prepares you for entry-level employment in a wide variety of industries where the discipline is in demand. You can work in advertising agencies, customer service, commercial printing, education, financial institutions, or freelance design and production. Government agencies use commercial artists, as does the health care industry. You might work as an in-house artist in publishing company, at a magazine or newspaper. There are commercial art jobs in manufacturing, service bureaus, television stations, video production companies, and public relations firms.
Skills Acquired
In a diploma program for commercial art, you will learn a great many necessary skills for translating your talent into a marketable discipline. You will take technical, advanced technical and general education courses in design, graphic production and Internet technologies. In most programs you will explore the principles of photographic design, and learn about the role of visual style in the commercial sector. You will study traditional drawing board techniques of graphic representation, while also gaining facility with the latest computer graphics software and applications. Also, you'll study graphic design problems to learn about the most create effective visual communications techniques, while learning to apply design, typography, software and production skills efficiently and accurately according to industry standards. As a commercial artist you will be expected to be creative and free-thinking, while maintaining an established style or direction, as well as being up to speed with the latest technologies. You will need an understanding of topics as varied as color management and copyrighting, and in some roles you will need to have customer service and business skills as well.
Coursework in a Commercial Art diploma program may include:
- Typography Illustration
- Techniques Layout and Design Production
- Art Photograph Graphics Software
- Electronic Prepress/Production Scanning and Proofing
- Color Management
- Four-Color Imaging
- Internet Technologies
- Portfolio Development
- Applications in Screen Printing
- Advertising Layout and Design
- Fundamentals of Typography
- Graphic Reproduction and Finishing
Career Outlook and Salary Information
Competition is fierce for employment in commercial art, but jobs are plentiful, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics expects the field to grow steadily through 2014, as demand for graphic design continues to increase from advertisers, publishers, and computer design firms. Median annual earnings in commercial art averaged around $38K in 2004, with the highest paid earning as much as $65K.
